Android 3.1 Honeycomb Coming To Google TV By End Of September [REPORT]

According to a new report published today, it appears that Google is gearing up for the release of Android 3.1 Honeycomb for their Google TV-powered smart TV platform.

The report comes from GigaOM – a blog dedicated to covering events and research from global technology innovators.

In the report, it is suggested that a new release of Google TV based on Honeycomb will be released before the end of this month (which is September, by the way) as apps made specifically for Google TV 2.0 based on Honeycomb are already being distributed in the Android Market.

Apps from WSJ, QVC , MotorTrend, Fox, Napster were showcased in GigaOM’s report. These apps aren’t limited to channels either as apps like Call Toaster (which notifies you of incoming calls/messages on TV) and Avia Media Player (for local content playback) are good examples of this.

From GigaOM:

Google TV-specific apps have started to pop up on the Android Market in recent days, hinting at an imminent release of the next-generation smart TV platform. Google TV’s new release, which will be based on Honeycomb, is expected to be released before the end of the month. And judging from the apps already available, it will offer access to a wide variety of content from publishers like the Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, QVC and others.

For the uninitiated, Google TV is a smart TV platform developed by Google with intention of making TVs actually smarter (unlike the current pseudo smart TVs). It is based on Android and uses the Linux version of Google Chrome for browsing purposes. It launched back in October last year with support from hardware partners Sony and Logitech.

Google TV hasn’t really picked up yet because of a number of limitations and bugs that its current release has. Sales are so poor, in fact, that manufacturers like Logitech slashed the price of their Revue set-top box from $249 to a mere $99. It is expected that the Android 3.1 Honeycomb release for Google TV will alleviate some of the issues that plagued the initial release.

Android 3.1 Honeycomb was actually leaked for the Logitech Revue recently and we published a step-by-step guide on how to install Honeycomb on the Revue which you may like to check out.

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